(Apologies - I posted this message to the Pali language forum earlier, but I think this is probably the correct place for it)

I remember reading a story in the Pali Canon somewhere, and I would really like to locate the source... I wonder whether anyone recognises the story, and even better, might know where it is to be found?

My memory of it is as follows:

Someone asks the Buddha: "Is an arahant constantly aware that they are enlightened?"

The Buddha replies: "Not during their day-to-day business. However, if they stop to consider, it occurs to them that the asavas can no longer arise in them"

That is just my memory of the gist of the story - I have probably mangled it to some extent!

I found this in the Sandaka Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 67), here explained by Ānanda to the ascetic wanderer Sandaka, who is thereupon converted and joins the Buddha's sangha, together with his retinue of 500 own disciples.

I think there is also a sutta where the Buddha gives this explanation, but am not sure about it.

Here the excerpt from Piya Tan's translation (starting at bottom of page 28 of this pdf):

Sandaka: “Now, master Ānanda, a monk who is an arhat with influxes destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached their own goal, destroyed the fetters of becoming, liberated through his own direct knowledge — is his knowledge and vision that his mental influxes are destroyed continuously and constantly present before him, whether he is walking, standing, sleeping, or awake?”

Ānanda: “Now, Sandaka, I shall give you a parable, for some wise persons here understand the meaning of a statement by means of a parable.
Suppose, Sandaka, a person’s hands and feet have been cut off. Whether he is walking, standing, sleeping, or awake, would he know continuously and constantly that his hands and feet have been cut off, or would he know this only when he reviews that they have been cut off?”

Sandaka: “Master Ānanda, that person would not know continuously and constantly that his hands and feet are cut off, but he would know it only when he reviews that they have been cut off.”

Ānanda: “Even so, Sandaka, an arhat with influxes destroyed, who have lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached their own goal, destroyed the fetters of being, liberated through his own direct knowledge — his knowledge and vision that his mental influxes are destroyed are not continuously and constantly present before him, whether he is walking, standing, sleeping, or awake, but when he reviews it, he know that they are destroyed.”